Making the Champions League elite, fixing the Europa League, and CWC back

First off, some rules:

The UEFA Coefficient would change from a 5-year unweighted cycle to a 4-year weighted cycle (40% for most recent year, 30% for second most recent year... 10% for fourth most recent year).

No team eliminated at any stage starting from the group stage on in either the Champions League or Cup Winners Cup can parachute into the Europa League.

The teams that finish 3rd in group stage in the Champions League will receive a monetary compensation (1/2 of what teams that advance to the Round of 16 receive) to offset the fact that their European season is over.

Finally, the Champions League is more important than the Cup Winners Cup, which is more important than the Europa League. Therefore, coefficient points should be as valued: a team that gets to the same stage in each competition, gaining the exact same results, would get 1/3 the number of points in the EL and 2/3 the number of points in CWC for doing the same thing in the CL.

All three competitions will be 32-team group stage competitions and will be seeded.

The highlights (if you read further than this section, it is more involved):

Each of these three tournaments will have 32 teams, split into 8 groups of 4 teams each. Each team will play six group matches, three home and three away. The top two teams in each group advance to the Round of 16. The other two teams in each group are eliminated from further European competition.

Champions League (played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays):

Berths in Group Stage (32 teams in total):

CL, CWC, and EL title holder each receive berth (as many as 6 teams from one nation may qualify for the Champions League)

Top 3 teams from 4 best associations receive berth

Top 2 teams from 5th best association receive berth

Champions from associations 6-12 receive berth

Berths in Playoff Round (16 teams in total):

Runners up from associations 6-7 receive berth

Berths in 3rd Qualifying Round (28 teams in total):

Champions from associations 13-15, and runners up from associations 8-15 receive berth

Berths in 2nd Qualifying Round (34 teams in total):

Champions from associations 16-46 (excluding Lichtenstein) receive berth

Berths in 1st Qualifying Round (8 teams in total):

Champions from associations 47-54 receive berth

Europa League (played on Tuesdays in time-slot before Champions League):

Everyone country receives at minimum 2 berths

Berths in 32- team Group Stage:

8 CL Playoff Round Losers

Best non CL, CWC team from associations 1-4

20 winners from Playoff Round

Berths in Playoff Round (40 teams in total):

Best non CL, CWC team from associations 5-10

14 losers from CL 3rd Qualifying Round

20 winners from 3rd Qualifying Round

Berths in 3rd Qualifying Round (40 teams in total):

Best non CL, CWC team from associations 11-20

2nd best non CL, CWC team from associations 1-10

20 winners from 2nd Qualifying Round

Berths in 2nd Qualifying Round (40 teams in total):

2nd best non CL, CWC team from associations 11-14

36 winners from 1st Qualifying Round

Berths in 1st Qualifying Round (36 teams in total):

Best non CL, CWC team from associations 21-53

2nd best non CL, CWC team from associations 15-53

Cup Winners Cup (played on Wednesdays in time-slot before Champions League):

54 teams in total will participate (every country will have one berth)

Berths in 32-team Group Stage:

Cup winners from associations 1-20

Berths in Playoff Round (24 teams in total):

Cup winners from associations 21-34

Berths in 3rd Qualifying Round (20 teams in total):

Cup winners from associations 35-54

As far as revenues, teams would receive more in the Champions League than in the Cup Winners Cup, which in turn would receive more than those teams in the Europa League.

shizzle787 wrote:Finally, the Champions League is more important than the Cup Winners Cup, which is more important than the Europa League. Therefore, coefficient points should be as valued: a team that gets to the same stage in each competition, gaining the exact same results, would get 1/3 the number of points in the EL and 2/3 the number of points in CWC for doing the same thing in the CL.

Why? The main use of co-efficients is to determine country rankings, which decides how many spots each league gets in the CL.

So why is the performance of the top teams of each league more important than the lower teams? Wouldn't EL (and your CWC) actually be a good indicator of the strength in depth of each league? IMO the points system right now makes more sense.

Also, I am dead against starting another competition (CWC) - UEFA can hardly support one average competition in the Europa league, there is no way it can financially support another one. Neutrals rarely even watch the EL, CWC will hardly help. It used to work earlier because the CL/EC had only the champions, so a lot of quality teams used to play in CWC/UEFA Cup. Now, the CL is much bigger (in every way). There is no going back.

The reason why the performance of top teams is more important than the lower teams is because of a situation that happened in 2011. Three Portuguese sides made it to the semifinals of the Europa League, two of them contesting the final. As a result of Portugal's success in the secondary competition (the Europa League), they gained an extra berth in the Champions League. I do not think that is right. The number of teams a country has in the Champions League should be more dependent on that country's performance in the actual competition itself rather than the Europa League.